. She saw me, looked scared at
first, then smiled, and danced on with her eyes upon me, as if she
said,--
"'See! I'm happy now; go away and let me be.'
"I couldn't stand that, and got out somehow. People thought me mad,
or drunk; I didn't care, I only wanted to see her once in quiet and
try to get her home. I couldn't do it then nor afterwards by fair
means, and I wouldn't try force. I wrote to her, promised to forgive
her, begged her to come back, or let me keep her honestly somewhere
away from me. But she never answered, never came, and I have never
tried again."
"She wasn't worthy of you, Thorn; you jest forgit her."
"I wish I could! I wish I could!" in his voice quivered an almost
passionate regret, and a great sob heaved his chest, as he turned
his face away to hide the love and longing, still so tender and so
strong.
"Don't say that, Dick; such fidelity should make us charitable for
its own sake. There is always time for penitence, always a certainty
of pardon. Take heart, Thorn, you may not wait in vain, and she may
yet return to you."
"I know she will! I've dreamed of it, I've prayed for it; every
battle I come out of safe makes me surer that I was kept for that,
and when I've borne enough to atone for my part of the fault, I'll
be repaid for all my patience, all my pain, by finding her again.
She knows how well I love her still, and if there comes a time when
she is sick and poor and all alone again, then she'll remember her
old John, then she'll come home and let me take her in.
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